Asian Neighborhood Design (B), Investor Relations And The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund

In January 2001, Melinda Tuan, managing director of The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), needed to make a decision. REDF, the community development arm of The Roberts Foundation, needed to decide whether to continue its investment in Asian Neighborhood Design (AND), a San Francisco-based nonprofit housing and community development organization. AND was one of the nation’s most highly regarded community development organizations and was one of REDF’s most prominent portfolio companies. Nevertheless, AND was experiencing challenges in meeting all the expansion commitments of its manufacturing business. Moreover, during AND’s rapid growth over the previous three years of REDF involvement, the organization’s financial accounting systems had not kept pace with the growth of the businesses. Furthermore, Maurice Lim Miller, longtime AND executive director, had recently resigned, and a new interim executive director, Richard Scott, was hired from outside the company to replace him. What was the outlook for the business, and was AND still a good fit with REDF’s investment portfolio?